More Whoa than Go
On July 7, 2019 by Erika EckstromWhen describing a “slower moving” horse as having no gas or throttle…
“No throttle or YOU can’t find the gear?!”
People seem to have way more trouble with slow horses than fast horses.
Reasons
There’s only a couple reasons that horses are slow and they are mostly the human’s fault:
1) The human isn’t worth listening to and lacks leadership skills.
2) The human doesn’t have the riding skills to make the request.
3) The human isn’t sitting in the middle or is unbalanced
4) The human is asking TOO MUCH and is nagging, so the horse has learned to ignore the human.
5) Ill fitting tack
6) Feet trimmed too short, overgrown, unbalanced or bruised (aka, needs farrier loving)
7) The human is asking for something the horse is physically incapable of doing (as in asking for 100 push ups when they can only do 10).
8) Horse is overworked and tired (rarely the reason….)
All other times refer to #1
Advice
1) Fast horses need more leg. Slow horses need less leg.
Why?!
A slow horse needs to be re-sensitized to the leg. The leg needs to actually MEAN something. Using too much leg can turn into nagging – a “boy who cried wolf” scenario where the horse slowly learns to ignore your inaccurate cues and misses the important ones. Taking your leg off and making less but more clear cues will sensitize them to the moment of contact and cause them to listen. Compare it to how when you yell people lean away but when you whisper they lean in to listen.
The fast horse needs more desensitization to the “go cue” and to learn that legs mean many more things beyond “go fast.” By adding more leg to a fast horse you take away the surprising moment of contact that initiated the go cue and also makes the horse move off leg in the other ways that will free their movements. Plus, many quick horses don’t mind the hug of reassurance once they get to know it.
2) Make it interesting!!
As a horse gets bored they stop listening. So you gotta change it up.
Contrary to what you think, the best way to get a horse to move is to make them keep stopping until they want to move.
Get them moving under saddle or on a lunge and then ask them to halt. Then walk. Then halt again. Then walk. Then halt. Then trot. Then halt again. Then walk. Then halt again. Then canter. Then halt. Etc…
They start to listen and says “Oh my goodness I have no idea what is next! Wait what?! Ok!! What? Oh yeah!!
And eventually you get the response of: “Gosh darned it just let me go! This stop and go is too hard!!!”
3) Take a deep hard look at yourself. If you aren’t nagging them, are not boring and they still don’t care a thing about you… then the problem is probably you.
Often people ask me, exasperated: “Why won’t she listen to me?!”
And I respond: “Why would they?! Honestly I wouldn’t listen to you either!”
Leadership is very different than being the boss. You can’t boss a horse into submission, you lead them to be willing participants.
So what is leadership?
- Leadership listens to their partner. Bossy says “listen to me.”
- Leadership praises the horse for the accomplishments of their teamwork. Bossy takes all the credit when things go well.
- Leadership takes responsibility for failure. Bossy blames others for failure. It is never a bossy person’s “fault.”
- Leadership lifts the horse up to a place where they actively participate in the answer. Bossy wants to keep the horse down and submissive, because otherwise the horse might take over the top role.
- Leadership makes sacrifices for the good of the team. Bossy wants the horse to sacrifice for her.
- Leadership is humble. Bossy is prideful.
Remember: the horse is not a tool for the job you want to do, the horse is the only reason you have that job in the first place!!!
A reader from England describes her Welsh gelding as “way more whoa than go.” She writes, “I want to do as much as possible at liberty with him and build a bond and incentive for him to want to be with me.” That’s the good news!